Costa Rica Nature Travel

Tasting cacao straight off the tree.

It's always fascinating discovering where your foods come from. Eat the tangy pulp of the cacao fruit fresh off the tree, but don't eat the bitter seeds, which are used to make chocolate.

Getting into the natural environment is more than eco tourism, it means eco immersion. See it, hear it, smell it. Serendipity takes you to places to see the bigger picture, to understand the delicate balance of nature, the connections between animals, plants, water, weather, earth, soil, industry, and humans. We're specialists in reaching the parts of Costa Rica inaccessible to tour buses and large groups. Our guide-intensive expeditions awaken your spirit and challenge your mind and body, giving you more than pretty images to remember.

Only Serendipity can provide you with this level of personal, private access to unmolested nature. We're not a vacation package company, sending you off with one tour operator here, another tour operator there.

We operate our nature travel itineraries ourselves. Our diversity and selection of specialized equipment is extensive and very well maintained. Our nearly two decades of experience exploring Costa Rica and operating nature immersion vacations means we know where the wildlife is abundant and where it has been scared away, and we have found outstanding local naturalist guides who will share their private and favorite observing locations. Throughout your trip you will be accompanied by your Serendipity guide, who will not only make sure your trip runs seamlessly, but also provide insight into the history and culture of Costa Rica, and how this relates to Costa Rica's nature.

We introduce you to our friends — farmers and environmentalists and people outside of tourism's magnetic circle. We see how plants are raised in permaculture farms, or enter indigenous villages to see the natural environment through the eyes of people who live with it every day. We visit coffee mills, cacao plantations, and tropical research centers working on medicinal plants and sustainable agriculture products. We contrast this with areas where the land is being raped by international fruit companies. We do this because it helps you understand the commercial pressures on the land and how enlightened users are working to protect it. What we do with you depends entirely on your priorities.

Sample Costa Rica Nature Immersion Vacations

All of our vacations immerse you in rainforests, cloud forests, rivers, and mountains (volcanos, even). Here we provide two sample expeditions to help you visualize your own Costa Rica nature immersion vacation.

  • Active naturalist private tour

    Violaceous Trogon in Costa Rica

    Serendipity's 10 day active eco nature itinerary is a very good starting point for naturalists. We can modify this itinerary to concentrate on any natural aspect you are interested in seeing — turtles, mammals, birds, aquatic, rainforest and cloud forest. You only need to tell us what you want, and we'll do the searching, if we don't already know.

  • Jurassic experience package tour

    Serendipity guest holding a tree frog.

    For solo travelers, or naturalists on a tight budget, our Jurassic Experience package tour takes you through cloud forest and rainforest, to the base of an active volcano, down a river filled with wildlife, and to the sea to see turtles, dolphins, and all the other creatures just below the surface.

    The Jurassic Experience also makes a great starting point for designing your own private active nature immersion vacation in Costa Rica.

Serendipity Provides Access To Unique Ways To Encounter Nature

Here are some of the unique nature immersion opportunities you have when traveling with Serendipity. We can combine these, and add other naturalist areas, to our own private selection.

The first step to enjoying a Serendipity adventure is to contact us.

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I think we all feel that this Serendipity adventure was one of the very best (if not the best) vacations we've ever had!

Everything from the culture, geography, history of Costa Rica, to the flora and fauna, biology and ecology. Our Serendipity leader, Eduardo, immediately assessed our interests and was quick to find so many great things for us to do. He offered us bungee jumping-which was a huge hit with the 2 " boys", and we saw what it means to be on a trip that was customized and special. He encouraged all of us to try new things( like canyoning, rappelling, swimming in waterfall pools, etc) and never pushed us beyond our limits. In fact he was exquisitely tuned into everyone's special interests and capacities and made us feel great. His special gift is his openness and his sense of humor, yet still with a steady competent sense of responsibility. He made the trip just great for all of us( we wanted to take him home with us!)

The food was one of the high lights- because every region and restaurant had a specialty- and Eduardo could explain the dishes and use the food as another cultural experience.

If vacations are meant to get away from the "rat race" -this was a success-and if they are meant to create life long memories-it worked! Thanks!

—Nancy S., Potomac, MD, Aug. 2006

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